ISBN 1833-8828 ISSN 1833-8836 (Online) MHS

Malvern Historical Society Inc. Keeping Stonnington’s History Alive! February - March 2009 Newsletter No. 17

2222 FebruaryFebruary GascoigneGascoigne EstateEstate WalkWalk Join the Malvern Historical Society for a walk around part of the Gascoigne Estate, Malvern East (area bounded by Tooronga, Burke and Wattletree Roads and Coppin Street) Sunday 22 February at 4pm. Meet at the Wilmot Fountain near the Conservatory at Central Park, corner Wattletree and Burke Roads, Malvern East. Cost: Members – Gold coin donation $5 donation for non-members View towards Kingston Street, Malvern (+$5 for Walk Book 4) For further information please phone Steve 0418 546 103 East (Reg No. 2499)

14 March Step Back in Time Day Prahran Market Did you know Prahran Market is Australia’s oldest continuously running food market? The history of Prahran Market includes stories of gold, barrow boys, war and rations, immigration, devastating fi re and the provision of fresh foods. On Saturday 14 March Prahran Market will celebrate its amazing history with a “Step Back in Time“ day. Prahran Market elevation, Charles D’Ebro Architect Telephone: 8290 8220 1891 (Reg No. 7092)

22 March Malvern East Walk Join the Malvern Historical Society for a walk around the Great Malvern Park and Triple Railway Station Estates, Malvern East (area bounded by Darling and Burke Roads, The Avenue and Brunel Street, Malvern East) Sunday 22 March at 4pm. Meet at Dairy Park, Darling Road, corner Rothesay Avenue, Malvern East. Cost: Members – Gold coin donation $5 donation for non-members (+ $5 for Walk Book 4) Cranbourne Dairy Darling Road, For further information please phone Steve 0418 546 103 Malvern East c.1937 (Reg No. 5083)

4 April Pets in the Park - Central Park Malvern East City of Stonnington’s Pets in the Park is a popular event held every year in Central Park Malvern East. The Malvern Historical Society stall and large display of photographs are always well received by both the adults and the children from the local community. Can you spare an hour or two to help us? This is an opportunity for our members and supporters to become actively involved in Stonnington’s local history. We will be handing out our latest free publication “i Spy Central Park”, a self guided tour of the park. Presentation of the Gilpin Drinking All help appreciated. Please call Lorraine Sage, President, 9885 9082 Fountain 1929 (Reg No. 485)

Malvern Historical Society - Committee News A warm welcome to Kate Witteveen who has joined the Malvern Historical Society Committee. Kate is already actively involved suggesting creative ideas to involve children in local history. After12 years on the committee, Honorary Treasurer Peter Frawley has had to resign due to his commitments with other community groups. Peter has worked tirelessly during a time when the Society’s membership has steadily increased from 80 to over 150. He has not only been part of the team that has applied successfully for a wide range of community grants but he has managed our funds very professionally. We wish him well in the future. Honorary Secretary Robin Brown has agreed to step into the position of Acting Treasurer. Robin brings to the position enthusiasm, a wide range of skills and a real understanding of the value of small community groups. It’s a pleasure being part of this enthusiastic and productive committee. Lorraine Sage - President Malvern Council Correspondence 1939 – Complaints! During 1939 Malvern Council received a number of complaints. A telephone complaint was received from a Valentine Grove, Armadale resident. The resident stated that “outside the door of The Red Cherry cake shop there is a dish of poison on the footpath, allegedly to catch fl ies, and in her opinion, this dish constitutes a danger to children, dogs and cats and suggests that the Inspector order the dish be removed”. The shop is on the west side of Glenferrie Road between Llaneast Street and Wattletree Road”. Letters of complaint included correspondence from the owners of Windella in High Street relating to the drum used by De La Salle College prior to St. Patrick’s Day, from Egerton Road, Armadale about present tenants keeping ducks and the resulting offensive odour, from Cawkwell Street about children playing in the street and from Waverley Road complaining about the Coburn Bros. wood yard in Turner Street. The Postmaster of Malvern North Post Offi ce (Woodmason’s Dairy) complained about the smell coming from Ryan Bros. Stables, a resident from Glenferrie Road complained that the fruit shop next door had fl owers on the footpath for sale and an anonymous complaint was received about City of Malvern Crest smoke nuisance from Martin and King’s factory in High Street. (Reg No. 7343)

Stonnington Research Enquiries The Society has recently received requests for information relating to verandah tiles in Grace Street, Hoyts Malvern cinema on the corner of Glenferrie and Dandenong Roads Malvern, a former City of Malvern Debutant Ball fl ower girl, Aileen Palmer, writer and daughter of writers Vance and Nettie Palmer, Robert Sellar, William Philpott, Stonington mansion stables, Carbethon Private Hospital, (established in 1927 in Wilton Vale Crescent Malvern East, and now Malvern Private Hospital) and Langleas, 66 Wattletree Road, Armadale (66 Wattletree Road, was built in 1868 as a brick cottage of 4 rooms, for retired master mariner, David Gillespie). The unlabelled photo in our Newsletter No 16 has now been identifi ed by the family as Malvern, Patrick Street Bondi NSW! All these requests have been researched and expertly answered by the Stonnington History Centre staff David, Di and Ellen.

66 Wattletree Road Armadale Hoyts Malvern, corner Glenferrie and Dandenong c1980 (Reg No. 5213) Roads, Malvern 1984 (Reg No 5013)

Stonnington History Centre - Records added last month http://www.maxus.net.au/stonnington/updates.htm Ever wondered what records have been added recently to the catalogue? A new feature on the catalogue allows you to retrieve all records added in the previous month. Just click on the above link or look for the link on the normal search page. Recently catalogued items include photographs taken for the City of Malvern Heritage Study 1992, details of research undertaken using two Prahran municipal electoral rolls held by the History Centre, 1881-82 and 1892-93 and “The rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif” , Mazari, Najaf 2008 - the biography of a refugee from Afghanistan who established a shop at 461 High Street Prahran selling Afghan carpets. Denby Dale 424 Glenferrie Road Malvern 1992 (Reg No. 12897) Which Prahran Rechabite Hall? Some time ago, a descendant of J.H. Furneaux – a name strongly associated with the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute – presented copies of a collection of 45 glass plate negatives to the Stonnington History Centre. This is a delightfully eclectic collection of images of early Prahran, some of which are justifi ably very well known, but many of which were new to us. Included are photos (1860s-1920s) of pubs, shops, a bakery, a butcher’s shop, the dismantling of the fi rst Church Street Bridge etc – they can all be viewed on the Stonnington Local History catalogue by searching on keywords = Procession leaving the Tent-room “furneaux & glass” and format = “photos”. 25 July 1870 (Reg No. 12303)

Two of the photos relate to the laying of the foundation stone for the Prahran Rechabite Hall, which I had presumed meant the handsome building still standing in Little Chapel Street, which was opened in 1889. However, I have always felt a little uneasy about some inconsistent details, such as the caption “Procession leaving the Tent-room”, which depicted the members assembled outside the fi rst Prahran Mechanics’ Institute building in Chapel Street. If curious, you can follow the trail of evidence in the detailed catalogue record (Reg no.12282), but the fundamental question arose – does this relate to the fi rst or the second Rechabite hall, 1870 or 1889? After much refl ection, the fi nal litmus test in dating this photo hinged upon the photographer, C. Rudd.

Laying the foundation stone of the fi rst Rechabite Hall, Prahran 25 July 1870 (Reg No. 12282)

In 1890, Rudd was listed in the Sands & McDougall directory as a photographer based in Bourke Street, – quite a long way to travel in those days to photograph an event in Prahran. Everything now pointed to this photo being taken in 1870, so you can imagine my disappointment to fi nd no listing at all for Rudd in the earlier directory. Perhaps he was just starting out that year as a professional photographer? It looked like there were always going to be question marks about this photo. In fact Rudd’s name had been misspelt as Rudel in the 1871 directory, corrected the following year to read “photographer, Chapel Street, Prahran”. Light bulbs go on big-time! A happy, serendipitous ending to this research story – the photo is much older than fi rst thought. We have no idea what the fi rst Rechabite Hall in Chapel Street looked like, but we do have a photo of its foundation stone. The building was next to Linay’s Timber Yard (north side), close to Grey Street on the east side of Chapel Street.

Rechabite Hall, Little Chapel Street Prahran 2006 David Tuck, (Reg no. 13336) Stonnington Local History Librarian 2009 Taking Local History to the Community Stop Press! The Society has now distributed all copies of “Back when…” Look out for copies at the Stonnington Libraries and local bookshops and newsagents while they last! We would like to thank the East Malvern Community Bank for funding the project, Ray Pethick, (Ray Pethick P/L) for his exciting graphic design and Adam Norgate, (McKellar Renown Press Pty Ltd) for the excellent quality of the production, especially the clarity of the original photographs. Thank you also for all the positive feedback we have received. This project has defi nitely achieved its aims - to introduce local history to children and to make local history more visible in the wider community. We would also like to thank Claire James, City of Stonnington, Media and Publications Offi cer for providing publicity, Kate Bruce-Rosser, Stonnington Leader, for the article and photograph and Alex and Ned Hume. Our neighbourhood walks in December (Adelaide Street) and in January (Cawkwell Street) were both very successful. Even 35 degrees at 7pm did not deter over 20 walkers in January!

Additions to the Stonnington Local History Collection • Cawkwell tiles donated by Margaret Coffey • St Roch’s Church notices for 2008 donated by Rev Father Ian Waters • Photograph of Miss Vera Porter’s Music School donated by Ray Price Miss Vera Porter’s Music School was located in Dandenong Road East Malvern on the east corner of Darling Road. The brick house was numbered 439 then 1109 Dandenong Road. Frederick then Vera Porter occupied the property from 1932. It remained in the Porter family until 1986. Ray Price is the student 3rd from left in the front row. His brother Val is 2nd from left front row. Top right is Dudley Simpson, thought to be the pianist and composer of the ‘Dr

Who’ theme. Wikipedia describes Dudley Simpson (born in Melbourne 1922) Miss Vera Porter’s Music School c1937 as an Australian composer who is best known for his work on . Simpson’s fi rst work on Doctor Who was during ’s era as the in Planet of Giants in 1964, but he is primarily associated with the programme in the 1970s. Between 1964 and 1980, Simpson composed the music for 60 Doctor Who stories and was also responsible for the memorable theme music for The Tomorrow People (1973) and Blake’s 7 (1978). • Postcards added to collection We thank Diane Nicholas for fi nding eleven old postcards of Stonnington in an antiquarian bookshop recently. And no, we’re not telling you which shop! Twickenham Ferry, River Yarra Here’s a sneak preview, not even on the catalogue yet. c. 1900 (Reg No. 23040) A ferry service across the Yarra River – from Survey Paddock, Richmond, to Grange Road, Toorak – operated from 1880 until 1934 when the MacRobertson Bridge was completed. It was named after the ferry that crosses the Thames in England between Richmond and Kew. Welcome New Members! The Society welcomes Julie Bosley and Faye Pattinson

Have you enjoyed viewing the photos in this issue? Material for the articles has been researched from the Stonnington Local History Collection. The database contains over 38,000 records. To view enlargements of photographs and to read more, just go to the website. www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/history